not having been presented at the English Court, the need for which had not occurred to either when starting for a sojourn abroad." However, we find that a letter has arrived from the Grand Duchess's chamberlain, authorizing our acceptance as hoffähig; and accordingly Edward has to-day left his card at the Palace. We are too late now to see the Prince royal of Russia, who has been here with his young wife, but has just left. She is the neglected daughter of the Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, who has been fêted; but we shall be in time for the grand ball, the only thing worth attending; for the midday levees, which last about twenty-five minutes, must be vastly stupid; and, considering you have to dress for them as you would for a ball, is a great bore. I hear so much of the rudeness of the German nobility here to the English, that I feel little inclined to put myself in their way, I can assure you. They give themselves great airs, even those who are untitled seal their letters with a coronet of strawberry leaves; and yet they are but boors in their manners—you should see them eat! putting their knives into their mouths, and hear how loud and vulgarly they talk, you would say that an English yeoman is a gentleman beside these Grafs and Barons. They leave the English completely to themselves, at all parties, so that these latter have to entertain one another, which they can do with good breeding, whereas these German nobles in another salle, or part of the room, are making as much noise as fishwives at Billingsgate. I have bought a wreath of flowers for my hair, and must needs go and show it."
The ball came off; and my father and mother attended it. My father wore a silk brocaded waistcoat, well-flowered, as was then the fashion. I saw my mother dressed to go, and thought at the time that I doubted whether one more lovely, graceful and highly-bred could be seen at the Palace. I do not think that my father cared one straw about admission at Court, but he was determined that my mother should take her proper place among or above the English residents at Mannheim, the Smiths and the Phytie-Tootles, the Joneses and the Bakers.
The Grand-duchess referred to was Stephanie (Beauharnais), adopted daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had married Carl, the second Grand-duke, grandson of the first who owed his elevation and title to the Corsican adventurer. He had died in
